Cambodia Politics

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to yield to international pressure Friday and in a surprise reversal said he supports trying two senior Khmer Rouge defectors for genocide. The defectors, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea--part of a Maoist guerrilla movement responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979--had been given a red-carpet welcome after they in effect surrendered to the government last week and said they want to live as "ordinary Cambodians."

In his darkest unpurged memories, Nob Seng can still see them coming on that fateful April morning 25 years ago, an army of sandal-clad peasant soldiers dressed in black, some of them just boys no taller than the rifles they carried, marching single file, silent and grim, into Phnom Penh to change the course of Indochina's history. Nob Seng was a policeman that day, April 17, 1975, and he did not know what to make of the spectacle.

Two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge headed back to an area controlled by former guerrillas today, but the Cambodian government denied it was letting men accused of genocide slip from its grasp. Chan Kosal, police chief in the northwestern town of Battambang, said Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea left Battambang by military helicopter for the town of Pailin after six days of VIP treatment by the government, which angered human rights groups and many Cambodians.

The last holdouts from a once-mighty Khmer Rouge guerrilla army were inducted into the Cambodian military, opening what was hailed as a new era of peace after almost three decades of bloodshed. About 1,700 guerrillas in Anlong Veng, 200 miles northwest of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, put down their rifles in a reconciliation ceremony.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that two leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge will be welcomed with "flowers . . . not a bullet," defying calls that they be brought to justice. Khieu Samphan, official leader of the revolutionary group, and political chief Nuon Chea will visit Phnom Penh with families today, Hun Sen said. Military officials promised tight security. They will not be forced to appear either in an international tribunal or a Cambodian court, he said.

Cambodian opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh said he will form a coalition government with his rival, Premier Hun Sen. Ranariddh's remarks came shortly after his return from Thailand. Hun Sen's ruling party narrowly won a general election in July but did not win enough seats to form a new government.

Cambodia's deposed co-premier, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, was elected president of the new ational Assembly, assembly officials said. The position is similar to speaker of the legislative body. Ranariddh has agreed to form a coalition government with Premier Hun Sen, whose ruling party narrowly won a July election. Ranariddh was ousted last year as first prime minister by Hun Sen, then his co-premier.

Accusing political opponents of a grenade attack on his home in Phnom Penh, Cambodian strongman Hun Sen ordered an end to protests against his rule and said his most ardent adversary would be arrested. Military police fired hundreds of shots into the air to disperse about 600 people gathered outside a luxury hotel where politician Sam Rainsy, the main target of Hun Sen's crackdown, was taking refuge. One man was killed.

Rival Cambodian parties Monday agreed to a meeting as a step toward ending a political deadlock, a mediator said, even as police and anti-government demonstrators clashed again in this capital. In two separate demonstrations Monday, the protesters demanded the ouster of leader Hun Sen, supporting opposition claims that he used fraud to win parliamentary elections July 26.

Southeast Asian mediators seeking a solution to Cambodia's crisis pulled back Saturday from insisting on the return of deposed First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a crucial victory for coup leader Hun Sen. Representing the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines asked Hun Sen to ensure the safe return of exiled opponents to prepare for elections next year.

Two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge headed back to an area controlled by former guerrillas today, but the Cambodian government denied it was letting men accused of genocide slip from its grasp. Chan Kosal, police chief in the northwestern town of Battambang, said Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea left Battambang by military helicopter for the town of Pailin after six days of VIP treatment by the government, which angered human rights groups and many Cambodians.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to yield to international pressure Friday and in a surprise reversal said he supports trying two senior Khmer Rouge defectors for genocide. The defectors, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea--part of a Maoist guerrilla movement responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979--had been given a red-carpet welcome after they in effect surrendered to the government last week and said they want to live as "ordinary Cambodians."

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that two leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge will be welcomed with "flowers . . . not a bullet," defying calls that they be brought to justice. Khieu Samphan, official leader of the revolutionary group, and political chief Nuon Chea will visit Phnom Penh with families today, Hun Sen said. Military officials promised tight security. They will not be forced to appear either in an international tribunal or a Cambodian court, he said.

Cambodia's deposed co-premier, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, was elected president of the new ational Assembly, assembly officials said. The position is similar to speaker of the legislative body. Ranariddh has agreed to form a coalition government with Premier Hun Sen, whose ruling party narrowly won a July election. Ranariddh was ousted last year as first prime minister by Hun Sen, then his co-premier.

Cambodian opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh said he will form a coalition government with his rival, Premier Hun Sen. Ranariddh's remarks came shortly after his return from Thailand. Hun Sen's ruling party narrowly won a general election in July but did not win enough seats to form a new government.

A grenade attack Thursday near a convoy carrying strongman Hun Sen to the swearing-in of Cambodia's newly elected National Assembly may have upset the delicate balance that brought together rival political parties for the first time since a coup in July 1997, observers say. The incident came just as the feuding political groups had finally met face to face in an effort to build a coalition government.

A meeting of Cambodia's reconciliation council, the body that is supposed to help the United Nations steer the country to a durable peace, foundered Saturday after three of its members failed to attend. "It was awful, tedious," said one independent observer at the meeting who did not want to be identified. "It just went round in circles. There was no agreed agenda. It was quite unstructured. "It was not acrimonious, they just did not make a great deal of headway.

Cambodia's head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk named two co-chairmen Wednesday from the country's main political parties to share power in an interim government. The arrangement increases the chances of a peaceful transition to democratic rule after a long civil war.

With the towers of Angkor Wat serving as reminders of Cambodia's past greatness, the feuding leaders of this troubled nation have come here in search of an elusive peace. The swearing-in today of the new National Assembly on the steps of Cambodia's most sacred temples marks the tentative first move by the country's political foes toward reconciliation after nearly two months of postelection violence.

Rival Cambodian parties Monday agreed to a meeting as a step toward ending a political deadlock, a mediator said, even as police and anti-government demonstrators clashed again in this capital. In two separate demonstrations Monday, the protesters demanded the ouster of leader Hun Sen, supporting opposition claims that he used fraud to win parliamentary elections July 26.